Yarraville will not shy away from the challenge of a huge run chase.
The Eagles will have to reach nearly 300 to trump Plenty Valley’s 8-296 in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association at the Yarraville Oval this Saturday, but they are up for the fight.
“We’ve got to take confidence out of our run chase in the Preston game,” Eagles captain-coach Matthew Love said.
“We were chasing over 300 and before the rain hit, we were 1-200 and going along well.
“We’ve got to back our ability and get a couple of big partnerships going.
“It’s pretty hard to stop the run flow at Yarraville at the moment, so we’ve got to bat all day and bat strong.”
Plenty Valley recovered from a precarious position to post its imposing total.
The Bats were staring down the barrel at 5-96 before Daniel Heatley turned up the heat with 110 and Sean Ayres added 70.
While Love assessed the pitch as a 300-run par score, he knows his side could have been in a better position at stumps.
“To be honest, it was probably a 300-run pitch and outfield, so at tea we were really happy,” he said. “We just didn’t bowl to a plan and gave them enough loose balls for them to play.
“We let ourselves down a bit in the field and had a couple of dropped catches.
“It just got away from us.”
What Love was most disappointed about was Yarraville letting down opening bowlers Alex Hewet and Cameron Rycroft.
Hewet and Rycroft churned out 40 overs between them to have the Eagles in a strong position only for it all to go pear-shaped late in the day.
Hewet bowled a marathon 24 overs for a return of 2-59, while Rycroft managed 16 overs for a team best 3-41.
“It was one of the better opening spells of bowling partnership-wise for a long time,” Love said. “It could’ve been a lot uglier if they weren’t able to bowl well at the top.
“Their opening spells were fantastic and made it hard for them to score early.
“They were pretty cooked after their spells.”
Sitting in seventh, Yarraville will be desperate to achieve a successful run chase to re-connect with the top six.
Meanwhile, Altona holds all the aces in its clash with Preston after amassing 9-336 on day one at JK Grant Reserve.
In-form Englishman Charlie Best blasted 134 off 187 balls, including 16 fours, and middle order batsman Shane Jones went close to a run a ball for 113 off 117. The pair combined for a 185-run fourth wicket partnership and put their team in a commanding position.
Williamstown secured first innings points over St Bernard’s on a day when 18 wickets tumbled at Murphy Oval. St Bernard’s were bowled out for just 100 with Seagulls change bowlers Patrick O’Malley (5-33) and Craig Sheedy (4-20) doing most of the damage.
The Seagulls were 8-134 at stumps, thanks largely to 49 from O’Malley, for a lead of 34.
